Kent-based Stevens & Carlotti (S&C) supplies metal fabrications to a wide range of industry sectors from its 64,000ft² facility in Sandwich; these can be anything from a simple bracket to fully assembled and tested machines. At any time, the company can have up to 1,200 individual jobs that require the support of a machining facility, in addition to laser cutting, CNC punching and folding, welding and painting.

Investing in a range of machines from XYZ Machine Tools has enhanced the company’s productivity on its fabricated components and given it the opportunities to develop a dedicated sub-contract machining capability.

Joe Douglas, S&C’s planning manager, said: “Machining parts used in our fabrications remains the ‘bread and butter’ of our machine shop, but with the increased capacity and capability we now have, we have seen a growth in pure machining work for customers. This now accounts for 10-15% of our machined output — and is growing year on year.”

The investment in XYZ machines began in 2005, when S&C took delivery of its first 560 Minimill, quickly adding a second — slightly larger — XYZ vertical machining centre to its capacity list. These were followed by a high-speed 1060 HS VMC. While we rarely use the maximum spindle speed of the 1060 HS, the all-round performance of this machine — with its fast traverse speeds and the Siemens control — helps to reduce cycle times.”

More recently, S&C has taken delivery of additional capacity in the form of a TC 320 LTY turning centre, a 1510 HD vertical machining centre and a 710 HD VMC. The TC 320 LTY is the turning workhorse of the business, with operator Callum Jones simply stating “it works” when asked why he likes it.

The large-capacity heavy-duty 1510 HD VMC provides added capacity and capability, giving Mr Douglas the option of putting large workpieces on it or multiple smaller workpieces — and of leaving the machine running out of hours. “We have trust in the machine to leave it running unmanned, in the knowledge that it will produce accurate parts without any manual intervention.”